Monday, April 20, 2009

Carrie Budoff Brown's newest article on Politico deals with the lack of GOP counter-message on healthcare; it is an interesting read, and points to some of the severe problems Republicans are having in mounting an effective counterattack against President Obama's health care plan. She also writes about the "health care entrepreneur" who is spending serious cash to oppose the Obama plan. Seriously, the fact that we can have "health care entrepreneurs" that run for-profit hospitals and urgent care clinics is ludicrous.

Then there is today's Thomson Reuters poll, which finds that 20% of Americans have delayed some kind of medical care because of cost. Things are looking good for some kind of substantive health care reform. I'm not totally in love with the Obama plan (being one of those single-payer pinko bastards myself), but it is a hell of a lot better than what we have now.

The title of the Politico article is "GOP stumbling in health care fight"; my question is which fight are they winning? They hate taxes, we got that (though the tax protest that happened in Riverside, CA took place in a public park-- I'm sure the irony was lost on the crowds, though). Here in California, the ire was directed at least as much towards Governor Meathead as Congress and the President. For leadership, the GOP has gone to the Norquist-Gingrich well-- it seems the infatuation with Palin and Jindal has subsided, and they are getting back to their rich, pasty old white guy roots. Same tired ideas, just 15% more shrill, and mostly without substance. Should the very small trickle of positive economic news and indicators start turning into a steady stream, Republicans could stand to lose even more seats in 2010.